The Soul’s Journey – Reflections on the Dark Wood

“Midway on life’s journey I found myself alone in a dark wood where the right way was wholly lost and gone.” Dante’s Divine Comedy.

I have long loved this quotation from Dante’s Divine comedy that seems to relate so precisely to a number of episodes in my life where I could not see the way forward. I do not believe that in the first half of my life, psychologically at least, I was able to appreciate these moments where there was no apparent way forward. The concept of life being a journey had not really occurred to me. Perhaps it is only in hindsight that I can see so clearly the dark wood that at times was obscuring clarity about my future direction.

In hindsight the moment my second wife left me after only a year and a half of marriage was a time when “the right way was wholly lost and gone”. At the age of 50 I had placed all my expectation of the future on another person – children, partnership, social and psychological needs and they had crashed to the ground like a sandcastle facing a wave.

Although I can now clearly see the necessity of this transition for me to live the life intended for me, all I could see then was the absence of a way forward. Yet a new direction opened and slowly and hesitantly I chose a path that led to becoming a spiritual coach and explorer of the inner worlds.

Recently I was engaging in my daily practice of reading eminent teacher and Jungian analyst James Hollis and encountered the question, “what is your task and what are you in service to?” He noted that our task will change at different stages of our lives so it was important to revisit this issue.

No clear answer sprang to mind. My activities as decision-making author, spiritual coach, dream facilitator and teacher of exploring our inner landscape had diminished with time. As I entered my eightieth year I knew I was content with living in the Elysian Fields traditionally the place where good souls rested – “a peaceful and beautiful region, full of meadows, groves, sunlight, and fresh air.”

Do I need a task or to be in service to anything rather than completing this life living as fully as I can and doing no harm? I realize the dark wood is behind me and that I now stand on its fringe in a state of acceptance knowing that different paths present themselves. The path of good health and an active life, a path of sickness and a more sedentary existence and the ultimate conclusion – death. So what is my task? I sat pondering and the word that came to me was friendship. I will live this final part of my journey being the friend as best as I can.

In my mind the words from Dante began to reconfigure themselves. “Approaching the closing of life’s journey, I found myself at the edge of the dark wood. The paths ahead were clearly defined but I no longer could choose which would subsume me. Yet I can define my attitude and comportment and I choose friendship as my companion.

The Soul’s Journey – The Power of Belief?

What is belief? Oxford Languages, the worlds largest publisher of dictionaries and the provider to Google, defines belief as:

1) An acceptance that a statement is true and that something exists.

2) Trust, faith of confidence in someone or something.

I have observed that belief or faith in something can have enormous power. Belief in a particular political cause can cause massive disruption when faced with an opposing view. Belief in a particular creed, religion or dogma has caused wars, civil disobedience and discrimination against others. Yet there is a much more positive aspect to belief.

Over the past twenty years I have become curious about how genuine belief or faith in something can actually have power over one’s reality. It is a concept that challenges rational thought and the scientific method yet during my life I have observed different beliefs, often contrasting beliefs, apparently having the power to effect an outcome. These few are from my personal experience.

The Belief in an All Powerful God

My parents were evangelical Christians who truly believed that God would provide. Their belief came from scripture. In Philippians 4:19 it states “And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” They believed this and there was always just enough even if it took a miracle to accomplish it. On one occasion I heard them discussing the fact that they could not meet the mortgage payment on our house in a lovely part of London and unless God showed up with some solution we would be forced to move. The next day an envelope containing a significant amount of currency arrived with a note to my father saying, “God asked me to send you this.” Anyone who has been associated with evangelical Christians will know of similar miracles. It is often used as proof that their God is the one true God.

The Belief in the Conscious Relationship With a Transcendent Power

This is not that different and was propagated by “new thought” Christianity, where God was kinder, less authoritative and would reward you for right thinking and living. Based on your consciousness, God would reward you with prosperity, relationship and health. For a while I became deeply committed to this belief through the Unity Church and my belief seemed to pay dividends particularly in terms of prosperity and healing. At that time I had some experiences that defied reason in terms of spontaneous healing. I began to study at their seminary and the power of right thinking and positive outcome was accepted by all.

The Belief in Positive Thinking

Then of course during the nineties there was a new belief system that suggested that all you needed to get your heart’s desires was to hold the attention and it would come to you. This was very attractive because you didn’t need to take any responsibilty for right thinking or right relationship, you just had to wish it enough and would come to you. The pinnacle of this movement was something called “The Secret” that became the rage. All you had to do was hold the belief that the universe was like a giant candy store and all you had to do was set the intention and it was yours for the taking. Many people were absolutely convinced and the stories of positive results abounded.

The Belief in a Guiding Principle in Your Life.

Almost every spiritual teacher, most Jungian analysts and many other conscious and evolved human beings that I have encountered believe that underlying the progress of their lives has been a form of guidance. Eminent Jungian analyst Robert Johnson refers to it as the “slender threads” that have connected his life. They are generally not predictable, often not explicable, and frequently are influenced by synchronicity – a word Carl Jung devised to describe a meaningful coincidence. An example was someone not turning up to take a position for which he had been hired which forced me to take his place. The unexpected consequences and ripple effect of this resulted in a series of radical impacts that directly caused my life to shift from successful adverting executive to spiritual coach. It is usually accompanied by a belief in the Soul or Self – an aspect of our unconscious that manifests its guidance through dreams, synchronicity, signs, body language even oracles.

Spontaneous or Conscious Manifestation?

I believe they can be both and either. Setting intention and paying attention can support this inner power yet especially in my earlier years of exploration there was a sense of the meaningful experience coming out of the blue and approaching me.What has been consistent has been the belief in something! Strangely it does not seem to be what you believe in that influences the outcome as much as a fervently held belief. The catch is the belief must exist both in the conscious mind and the unconscious. Once the belief loses its depth or conviction then my experience is that the source dries up. It is nothing but a dry husk.

How and Why does this work?

Frankly I have no idea! I have experienced both the power and benefit and the loss of it. It is all part of the strange and wonderful mystery that we get to participate in. I have found that having a belief in something has been so beneficial, losing it is painful yet often leads to a more enriching possibility. I found this interesting story from a guru. “A woman chela [disciple] once asked the guru [Lahiri Mahasaya] for his photograph. He handed her a print, remarking, “If you deem it a protection, then it is so; otherwise it is only a picture.” Lahiri Mahasaval

Postscript

While composing this I was out for dinner, and overheard the most fascinating conversation between a couple, one of whom was obviously a fundamentalist evangelical, and the other I would describe as having new age spiritual beliefs. He was proclaiming the power of his God to bring forward the best possibilities for his life. She was claiming she got the same benefits, provided by her guardian angel. She had no concept of his God nor he in her guardian angel and both were convinced that only they were right. The irony was they may both be correct and that my own belief is really not that different.